#trying perspective AND funky colours ! i think it turned out okay

[goozeghost]

my new years resolution is to draw more Ted and cooler looking pieces, compositionally-wise. So i did both >:)

(alt versions below cut)

[crow-in-a-teapot]

tower of nero spoilers

i have just finished the tower of nero. and before i go searching for other people’s thoughts and art and more of the characters i love so much, i want to write down some of my own thoughts because i know as soon as i delve into that ‘ton spoilers’ hashtag there are going to be complaints and criticisms and so much that i don’t want to hear, or essays that’ll make me upset, or things that’ll change my perception on the book (because on this website people really love to hate the trials of apollo).

i want to start with: i loved it. it didn’t feel earth-shattering or huge and momentous like some of my favourite riordanverse books (house of hades, the blood of olympus, the last olympian and maybe some of the magnus chase books take those pedestals for me) but it was satisfying. and i think it was satisfying because it in no way felt like an ending. whether because eventually rick will write that will-and-nico-go-through-tartarus-and-save-bob novella, or because we (or at least i) will continue writing and imagining and creating for this world i don’t know. he didn’t wrap up the story in a perfect little bow like ‘nineteen years later’, he simply put it on pause. gave us a glimpse of where every character was at at the end.

the only thing that makes me so angry and upset is that i did manage to get some spoilers for moments that i know would have been so good to experience for the first time if i hadn’t been spoiled for them. the moment where rachel mentions penguins in a mansion near her house, nico getting mental health advice from mr d, the fact that will and nico were going to be in the book for so much of the story, but the big thing was literally spoiled for me two days ago, it was the reason i sat down to read it as fast as possible because i was terrified of getting more spoiled and not being able to experience the moments for myself, was that piper had a girlfriend. i know that reading that for the first time would have been so cool and surprising, and the fact that when it came up for a moment in the last couple pages all i felt was disappointment because it was spoiled for me and because it was now tinged with whatever that person was saying about her having a girlfriend.

but i still had some warm fuzzy moments, the two parts where apollo thinks he’s going to die but nico comes up behind him - so good. impeccable. 

Leader Guy spat. ‘Now, I kill you.’

He raised his sword... and froze. His face turned pale. His skin began to shrivel. His beard fell out whisker by whisker like dead pine needles. Finally, his skin crumbled away, along with his clothes and flesh, until Leader Guy was nothing but a bleached-white skeleton, holding a sword in his bony hands. 

Standing behind him, his hand on the skeleton’s shoulder, was Nico di Angelo.

and

Nero raised his hand, ready to give the kill command, when behind me a mighty BOOM! shook the chamber. Half our enemies were thrown off their feet. Cracks sprouted in the windowsand the marble columns. Ceiling tiles broke, raining dust like split bags of flour. 

I turned to see the impenetrable blast doors lying twisted and broken, a strangely emaciated red bull standing in the breach. Behind it stood Nico di Angelo.

gods. poetic brilliance. i can’t believe i’m still a nico di angelo stannie in the year 2021. in five years i have not changed (ever since the tv show announcement last summer i have managed to morph into myself from 2017)

from here i’m not sure where to go next i kind of want to go through everything, except it’ll be more difficult than my tyrant’s tomb reaction because i wasn’t reading on a kindle and thus can’t just do funny little reactions to screenshots of quotes, so i’ll just skim through the book page by page and see what i can comment on (i’m not planning on doing analysis today, no thank you, just enjoying the end of my childhood and trying to squeeze as much out of it as possible)

i have an emotional attachment to mr. snake from the very first chapter, and am very upset that he’ll never get off on his baltimore stop and get to see his wife, lu had no reason to shoot and kill him like that.

that brings me to lu, i liked her, it was interesting to see how rick kind of brought in not only the overarching theme of abuse, but also people who let the abuse happen, i have more i could say on this i’m too lazy to right now, and i promised no analysis - or the fact that Lu had conspired to make the show non-lethal to spare Meg’s feelings rather than - oh, I don’t know - refusing to do Nero’s dirty work in the first place and getting Meg out of that house of horrors. 

And are you any better? taunted a small voice in my brain. How many times have you stood up to Zeus?

Okay, small voice. Fair point. Tyrants are not easy to opppose or walk away from, especially when you depend on them for everything.

the parallels to meg and lester heading to percy’s apartment, and then to camp half blood to the hidden oracle was so cool to read, every callback to the hidden oracle just there to remind us readers exactly how far apollo has come and how he’s changed; the entire chapter with sally, paul and estelle just felt sickly sweet, it just didn’t seem real how wholesome and good that family is, like i get why apollo broke down and just sobbed in that shower.

also rick really saying acab again in toa, i thought he was done after that elf cop chapter in magnus chase (the magnus chase series is a masterpiece) but apparently not, with A ‘good cop’ is still a cop... still a part of the mind game.

the grey sisters, i forgot about them completely but this threw me back into was it the sea of monsters when annabeth summoned them? i’m not sure, it could have been the lightning thief either, they really remind me of the disney hercules movie. the whole ganymede paragraph was gold, i love gods being canonically confirmed lgbt in the riordanverse. i also love the whole eye-tossing part - 

‘He will crush our eye,’ Anger cried, ‘if we don’t recite our verses!’

‘I will not!’

‘We will all die!’ Wasp said. ‘He is crazy!’

‘I AM NOT!’

‘Fine, you win!’ Tempest howled.

also, the explanation for why dionysus chooses to look the way he does was perfect, because it was something i often wondered about and wasn’t expecting to get an explanation for, and i imagine the whole mythological dionysus to look like.. well like a more feminine apollo i guess, beautiful in a gender non-comforming way.

Other Olympians could never comprehend why Dionysus chose this form when he could look like anything he wanted. In ancient times, he’d been famous for his youthful beauty that defied gender.

... 

In retaliation, Dionysus had decided to look and act as ungodly as possible. He was like a child refusing to tuck in his shirt, comb his hair or brush his teeth, just to show his parents how little he cared.

every scene with nico at camp just BREAKS ME, i would throw in screenshots of every damn quote but unfortunately, as said above, cannot and would rather not type every one; we’ll start with, obviously apollo confirming to him that jason is dead. 

He didn’t look angry exactly. He looked as if he’d been hit in the gut not just once but so many times over the course of so many years that he was beginning to lose perspective on what it meant to be in pain. He swayed on his feet. He blinked. Then he flinched, jerking his hands away from Meg’s as if he’d just remembered his own touch was poison.

ugh then will talking about how nico’s doing, confirming that he’s suffering with ptsd, mr d giving him advice, helping him sort though what voices in his head are real and which ones aren’t, then the paragraph that just recounts every horrific thing poor nico has been through, how will has to reassure him that he’s okay and ‘with friends’ when he wakes up after shadow travel

will’s kindness to apollo, buying him clothes, and apollo finding seymour the leopard’s head in his bed, put there by mr d aaaa AAAA A A A A A THE ORDINARY, EVERYDAY CAMP HALF BLOOD THINGS..

i could go on for years and years about how much i appreciate rachel having a big role in this book, and the visit to her apartment, everything, her art, the fact that she got what she wanted, she’s going to PARIS to study ART, she isn’t forced to be someone she’s not by her dad, and gets to be a big part of a demigod mission and not stand on the sidelines for once.

i love that her landscapes are still visions, that she still paints the quests demigods go on - the burning maze, jason’s funeral pyre, caligula’s ships; and how nico ~appreciates art~

‘And, hey, di Angelo -’ she pushed him playfully away from the canvas he’d been ogling - ‘don’t brush against the art! I don’t care about the paintings, but if you get any colour on you, you’ll ruin that whole black-and-white aesthetic you’ve got going.’

i. love. rachel.

WILL GLOWS!! THE HEADCANONS FROM LIKE FIVE YEARS AGO THAT YOU’D SEE FLOATING AROUND ABOUT HIM MANIPULATING LIGHT!! CONFIRMED!! CANON!! AMAZING

I AM  OBSESSED WITH THE TROGS, I LOVE THEM, THEY ARE GREAT, not gonna lie, i was expecting something more dramatic and spooky with how worried will was and how dionysus was going.. visiting the cavern-runners isn’t ♫ good for your mental health  ♫ but the little hat frog gremlins were a good addition. i like them very much and their funky little soup shenanigans. quoting the ghost king himself: trogs good. nice hats. (IM SORRY I KEEP MENTIONING HIM BUT I JUST) also how apollo starts wishing for breadsticks a s ajoke and theY STRAIGHT UP HAVE BREADSTICKS? HUH? WHERE DID THEY GET THE BREADSTICKS FROM??

yeah, i’m also still very much upset by every mention of jason grace, it’s funny how ever since his death in the burning maze i have grown to love him more and more and that’s not fun for me, for that boy to become one of my main comfort character’s and have his death and sacrifice and nobility mentioned every few chapters. i’m pretty sure i cried when he appeared to talk in apollo’s dreams, and this time the tears weren’t from the effort of keeping my eyes open and working for hours straight reading this book (i remember staying up until 2am to finish the sequel to beautiful, broken things, it was very much worth it)

‘All right, Jason. We miss you, though.’

ALSO. THE FACT THAT THIS KID. THIS CHILD. HAD TO THINK ‘BUT IF A HERO ISN’T READY TO LOSE EVERYTHING FOR A GREATER CAUSE, IS THAT PERSON REALLY A HERO?’ A KID ISN’T SUPPOSED TO THINK ABOUT THAT AND BE READY TO SACRIFICE THEMSELVES FOR THE GREATER GOOD,, i,, ugh,, he’s supposed to be finishing school and designing temples not being the perfect hero and soldier,, spain without the s,,

as @couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name said: ‘thinking about how ghost! Jason didn’t seem to understand why Apollo was so upset about his death because he’s been raised to believe a hero’s sacrifice is noble and his life doesn’t matter in the grand scheme and also if he doesn’t understand why the person who watched him get horrifically killed is so torn up over his death he probably doesn’t even realize his other friends are grieving him..’

IM SO UPSET THE ARROW OF DODONA IS DEAD D: IT WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS ALL THE FUNNIEST MOMENTS WERE BECAUSE OF THAT ARROW AND IT'S DEATH WAS SO SAD WTH LIKE WE FIND OUT HOW USELESS THE ARROW FELT AND HOW THE GROVE OF DODONA ALL THOUGHT IT WOULD BE CRAP AND WOULD FAIL APOLLO AND THEN ONCE WE FEEL BAD FOR IT, IT DIES??

the entire python battle was pretty grim, there is a part of me that's like because this is the last book series i would have loved say the magnus chase and kane chronicles gang in a giant battle with everyone like the battle of manhattan but even more dramatic, but even so, i did appreciate that python battle and the whole almost-falling-into-the-depths-of-tartarus thing.

him talking to artemis was cool, but JESUS: 'I turned and strode out of my room, trying to recall how the god Apollo walked.' like that HURTS. it was such a huge culture shock for apollo to go throught this huge character arc and be so human and understand the pain of others, to be around gods again who are so.. apathetic. also, zeus. 'Interesting how he put that: I had done him proud. I had been useful in making him look good. My heart did not melt. I did not feel that this was a warm-and-fuzzy reconciliation with my father. Let's be honest: some fathers don't deserve that. Some aren't capable of it.'

OKAY OKAY SO THE END?? CHIRON TALKING TO A CAT (BAST) AND A SEVERED HEAD (MIMIR) ABOUT SHARED PROBLEMS WITHIN THE PANTHEONS!! WILL AND NICO RECEIVING A PROPHECY FROM RACHEL TO GO TO TARTARUS AND SAVE BOB!! THE HUNTERS OF ARTEMIS, INCLUDING THALIA AND REYNA BEING BEST FRIENDS (qpr.. qpr..) HUNTING THE TEUMESSIAN FOX!! PERCY, ANNABETH AND GROVER, THE ORIGINAL TRIO, GOING ON A CHAOTIC ROAD TRIP TOGETHER!! - SO MANY STAND-ALONE SET -UPS PFSJSJSJ

okay quick word on the reunions at the end: funny little elephant visitation program with livia and hannibal. love that for them. calypso and leo's relationship seems rocky and complicated, but that's to be expected, i think even if they do get properly back together again it might not last long, because it does pretty much feel like a teenage relationship where the two aren't very compatible, but we'll see. hazel and frank are so funny with their gold plated necklaces. lavinia - tap-dance icon. almost cried at the mention of jason's temple-extension plan again. percy not being sure about what he wants to do in college is accurate and i like that that's left to be up-for-interpretation (rick does THE MOST for the fanfic writers pfsjsj). i am OBSESSED with aeithales, like i hate deserts so the burning maze setting is not my favourite but GOD that HOUSE, the vibes are off-the-charts. i'd love a house made of living trees that's also a greenhouse filled with dryads. meg gets a unicorn. that is so great.

i kind of wish the book hadn't ended with 'Call on me. I will be there for you.' because every time I imagine the friends theme song and i don't think that's the vibe he was going for, BUT i do love him talking to meg, that was genuinely emotional - 'You'll come back?' she asked. 'Always,' I promised. 'The sun always comes back.' ; i really wish it had ended with that, but i guess apollo does tend to break fourth walls and talk to the readers, like a lot of the protagonists of riordanverse books.

[thewaysoundtravels]

Why Afropunk London 2017 wasn’t as perfect as the Guardian suggests... [2 Perspectives of Day 1]

Perspective 1: Cle

Afropunk was a meticulously curated festival, with a subtle nod to a future where women equal men at headline level -- and boasted more acts I’d given up dreams of seeing than most festivals do. But it wasn't perfect.

Just because you're ecstatic something exists, doesn’t mean it can't be criticized. And taking a dig publicly may also help its creators iron out the bugs.

So here's the dig. But this isn't about losing its "punk" roots as is the usual hushed chat about Afropunk, whether in Brooklyn or London. Nope, right now, this is the nearest to punk you'll get from all 8 billion of us. The problem lies with basic organisational issues.

Like Field Day earlier this year painfully jamming two days worth of music and people into one, and Lovebox with its classic post-apocalyptic entry queues, this London festival also messed up a few minor things -- which ended up leaving a bit of a sour taste.

Or no taste, if y​​ou're one of the people wise enough to not queue up for hours for one of the few measly food vans shoved in the smoking area and apparently kitted out to serve thousands of us.

Because we chose not to join a mega queue, we substituted the brilliant Danny Brown to leave and get depressing Pizza Hut. He would have done the same.

On returning just in time for Jme -- for who we had full on cheese guilt as the UK's top vegan badman -- we filed into a tiny corner of the colossal warehouse.

Why the biggest acts were wedged up there instead of playing the cavernous main room is anyone's guess. And why anyone would design a monster factory rave space to fit the music in one enclosed corner is what I'm also still guessing about.

Jme's set was a slick, sharp, high energy barrage of witty, self assured, super satisfying bullets to my heart. 10 years is better late than never for me to see him, and him to get the respect and fame he deserves from the mainstream.

But while his high-speed bars suited the 45 minute set, Nadia Rose, Saul Williams, Little Simz and others had to squash their dizzying talents into 30 short minutes. Not long enough to get into it, but just long enough to seem like a flashing fairground advert for their sound. IF you heard it.

The vocals were so low for The Internet and Little Simz that it would have been easier to sell their greatness to my friends' virginal ears with YouTube on my phone.

Maybe that's a Printworks issue. But even if it is, I'm going back there asap. The venue is immense, mesmerizing, staggering. The stuff of dystopian teknivals. It made you feel like a forgotten synapse in the crumbling skull of the 20th century's industrial, mass-scale bad news print world.

But we're not at an illegal rave dancing on the ashes of another fallen industry. We paid 50 quid; and everywhere we go we are being shoehorned into areas designed to make you spend money, while massive spaces that could be fun, arty, beautiful zones to explore are left empty, not wanting to distract from the main current to consumerism.

Well let's face it though, that is our society now. We consume. So we may as well consume the best music on the planet, in the best style, with the best people.

Perspective 2: Will

Day 1 of Afropunk felt… hard to put into words. On some level it felt kind of not-quite-sorted-out.

Hands down the person I enjoyed the most was Nadia Rose. She had great energy and her performance, both vocals and dancing pulled everyone in. She totally owned her show which was packed with addictive body moving beats and memorable choruses. Saul Williams was alright, professional in every aspect even wandering into the audience at one point, yet somehow his dense politics-heavy verses on top of noisy intense beats with footage of social justice related phrases as a backdrop seemed a little out of sync with the atmosphere. Perhaps greater context from him and a sense of space in the sound would have pulled more of the crowd into the orbit of his powerful lyrics. The cutest bit was his two kids joining him on stage for the last track of his set, which was only half an hour long. What's that about??? The longest set by anyone was just under an hour, that’s no joke. My mates loved JME, it didn't fully work for me, but he definitely did good banter placing his tracks within a wider context of the UK grime scene for anyone who wasn't already familiar. I'm ambivalent about grime, so I’m probably not best suited to judge. Little Simz suffered from being drowned out by her band who were amazing, some real funky grooves with hints of jazz, and perhaps if her vocal levels were turned up more it would have worked better. What I saw of Corrine Bailey Rae was as her albums sound; music I’m content not to listen to for long, admittedly she has a great voice. The Internet came across well but again as with many other acts all day, the vocals could have been clearer. Earlier on in the day caught the tail end of Kojey Radical so won’t comment, and the little I experienced of Don Letts (?) djing I really enjoyed.

In terms of the set up, the festival had two music stages, however most of the folk we wanted to see were on the smaller one. The crowd was at a guess predominantly in their twenties and thirties, mainly people of colour. Lots of African-print fabric on display in the stalls area and in the crowd’s fashion tastes too. Not enough food stalls so the queues were so long we left the venue to go get some dinner.

So yeah, that's my two pence on Afropunk London 2017, basically Day 1 was okay-ish yet somehow underwhelming. I didn’t make it to Day 2 as we only had tickets for Day 1, tickets purchased before the 24hr special offer sale deal came up. By the way, totally unfair that early bird tickets cost more than the sale price, kind of makes a mockery of the early bird concept, why bother next time round to buy tickets early? It just doesn’t make sense.

I can’t end without referencing the Guardian review of the festival. As a review it seemed to gloss over the on-the-ground issues almost creating the impression the experience was flawless, which I think risks being a bit disingenuous. Other than the issue of poor access for disabled people, there's limited critical engagement with the practicalities of the day. Neither is there any acknowledgement of the writer’s insider status as an editor for Gal Dem who had a slot on Day 2, which may account for her familiarity with the VIP area and BBZ. I don't think any of us do the festival favours by not addressing issues head on e.g. food stalls and sound issues for Little Simz’ vocals. Through criticism, organisers can address issues for next year. So Afropunk organisers if you’re listening, we like what you’re trying to do, and we want you to succeed, you just need to try harder to fix teething problems to make the experience more fulfilling next time round ;-)

Guardian Review: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/jul/24/afropunk-festival-review-printworks-london-jme-nao-lianne-la-havas